[bladesmith]

tomytoons,

I need about another 100 hours to finish breaking it in. (so it is sounding better every day I use it..)

Haven't been doing much tube rolling lately.. so I should start rolling again..

The amp is super quite. And I think I am going to enjoy it. Very excited about getting some new/different tubes in it because of it's possibilities..

[Quiet Earth]

Sometimes the nothing-special, readily available tube is the best way to go. I really like the JAN Phillips 6922 from the 80s. It just gets out of the way and lets my phono stage do its thing. But hey, that's no fun to write about.

Might give Genalex E88cc a try. Excellent tube, low noise, reasonably priced, and plentiful.

I'm probably going to get a set of these soon. I really like the latest Gold Lion reissue 12AX7 and 300B.

[bladesmith]

Quiet Earth,

Agreed...

I have an old RCA JRC 12at7wa made in the USA back in 1963 and used it for a short while on
an old preamp and it was incredible.. sold the pre amp and now just have the tube lying around..

I ran across it by accident.. not popular at all, and very good tube..

[Ericus Rex]

Yep.  Those American tubes are highly underrated and still a bargain...though their prices are rising!

[doctorcilantro]

Upscale still has some PCC88, POPE I think. Rather nice. You could look into the variants always suggested at De3cware forums. The 61NP-EV I think.

Yup, lots of folks using these, but I haven't bought them yet:

http://www.cryoset.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=263

[BobM]

The 6DJ8/6922 tube family is used just about everywhere where a small signal tube is needed. Therefore prices for NOS stock are through the roof. That being said, I've found the Russian "Rocket Logo" 6922's that Upscale Audio sells to be quite a decent tube.

You can get them far less expensively going direct to a Russian source via e-bay. Buy several pair, then, for God's sake please do this ... cryo them. They are an amazingly good little tube after cryoing.

[Quiet Earth]

I must be the only person here on AudioCircle that thinks it is a terrible waste to "cryo" a tube. It is the very worst thing you could ever do to a tube, IME. I would rather throw one up in the air and watch it smash into pieces on the hard cement ground than cryo it.

I will never buy another cryo'd tube again, and I certainly would never pay for someone to do it.


The Russian tubes are not bad. The quality is sketchy from batch to batch, but that is what you should expect from e-bay.

[tomytoons]

I agree never Cryo tubes waste of money.
Been there and not heard too much differences.
Longevity? I never hung on to the equipment long enough. LOL!

Watch what you buy because you will never get out of them what you got them for on the re-sale.
Unless they are super special.

[rbwalt]

http://www.tubeaudiostore.com/tubes.html


check out the 6dj8 or 6922's here.

[Steve]

The 6n1p family are not equivalent to the 6dj8, if optimum conditions are to be obtained.

The filament current is roughly twice, 600ma, that of a 6dj8.
Check the filament winding for current capacity, dc regulator if used, with such a replacement.
The transconductance is less than 1/2 that of a 6dj8. The plate resistance is roughly
2 times that of a 6dj8, which affects the high frequency
response as well as gain for a given plate resistor.

One can sneak by, but don't expect optimum conditions.

Cheers.

[BobM]

I agree never Cryo tubes waste of money.
Been there and not heard too much differences.

I hear ya - I never believed it either and never heard much of a difference. But with the low cost of these Rocket Logo 6922's I gave it a try and snuck a few into a friends cryo bag. The end result was much better then the stock tubes I kept at home. Just saying what I hear, on this particular tube.

[doctorcilantro]

True, I forgot about that! Reports of less headroom using them.

Unrelated..in the case of replacing 12AU7 with E80CC, when possible, I have found a nice improvement.

The 6n1p family are not equivalent to the 6dj8, if optimum conditions are to be obtained.

The filament current is roughly twice, 600ma, that of a 6dj8.
Check the filament winding for current capacity, dc regulator if used, with such a replacement.
Plate The transconductance is less than 1/2 that of a 6dj8. The plate resistance is roughly
2 times that of a 6dj8, which affects the high frequency
response as well as gain for a given plate resistor.

One can sneak by, but don't expect optimum conditions.

Cheers.

[mboxler]

tomytoons,

I am using a Dodd Audio Integrated amp. It has a Dodd Audio preamp with a 6DJ8 tube..

My Dodd preamp came with a 6H30 tube, but can use "any tube from the 6DJ8 family".  Gary should be able to tell you if a 6H30 will work in your preamp section.  Just a thought.

Mike

[bladesmith]

The 6DJ8/6922 tube family is used just about everywhere where a small signal tube is needed. Therefore prices for NOS stock are through the roof. That being said, I've found the Russian "Rocket Logo" 6922's that Upscale Audio sells to be quite a decent tube.

You can get them far less expensively going direct to a Russian source via e-bay. Buy several pair, then, for God's sake please do this ... cryo them. They are an amazingly good little tube after cryoing.

Very interesting BobM... will look into that...

[bladesmith]

Might give Genalex E88cc a try. Excellent tube, low noise, reasonably priced, and plentiful.

Cheers.

Differently gonna try the Genalex. I have had some good luck with them
In other gear...!

[JackD201]

Mullard 2492
Valvo 7308
Amperex USN Blue Tip
Tele CCa Redtip

All depending on mood

[bladesmith]

So I have some tubes I am trying out. A Genelex is in it currently, sounds very sweet. I also have a Amerpex, HP and a Telefunken..will try them all and give some feed back..

I am using a very different amp, it was made by Gary Dood, it has his Dodd tube preamp in it , but the amp is SS, the thing is dead quiet...(I have never heard of Gary making a SS amp before..but he is very good at it..)

[jackman]

I'll be interested in your comments!  I compared some JJ 6DJ8's with the Genelex Gold Lion versions and the Gold Lions sounded MUCH better in my system.  The JJ's were pretty good and were in the system for a few weeks.  As soon as my SAS 10A warmed up, the Gold Lions were the clear winners.  All of the detail was there, but the Genelex tubes sounded much more refined and musical.  I'm not a cork sniffer but this one was pretty easy. 

The tubes you have listed are on my list to try, especelly the Amperex and the Tele's.  They are so expensive, I am hesitant!  For the record, the Genelex tubes in my SAS 10A are dead silent.  So good, I kind of put my tube comparisons on hold and worked on other aspects of my system.  I'll be watching for your feedback on the other tubes.

Cheers,
J

[WireNut]

My preamp uses 8 6DJ8/6922 type tubes. Six of those are used in the cathode follower positions and two are used in the gain positions. Seems like the 6 in the cathode positions don’t benefit from exotic/expensive NOS tubes. The 2 used as gain tubes do benefit.

The 6 tubes in the cathode positions don’t even have to be matched it seems. I’ve tried Siemens’ 6922, Electro Harmonix ,Tesla, and Reflektor, even mixed them up. As long as they’re quite it doesn’t seem to make much difference in the cathode positions.
At least that’s what I’ve found so far.